There is a long felt need to provide effective, durable, and long lasting disinfecting characteristics to textiles used particularly for homes, hospitals, hotels, offices, industrial environments, military, police, humans, and pets etc., as they are subject to contamination by bacteria, viruses and fungi. The prevalent environment in these locations can result in the textile being not only a fertile breeding ground for these pathogens, but also a perfect substrate from which these pathogens can be spread to others resulting in infections, maybe even death, higher operational costs and waste through redundancy and rot.
Textiles are used for a variety of purposes and in a variety of environments. As such, there is a very realistic danger of microbiological contamination on the textile surfaces. Additionally, danger of staining of apparel due to ketchup, blood, sputum, honey, human excreta and moisture are also problems faced by users in various circumstances. Not only do such stains look ugly, but they also are fertile breeding grounds for various harmful bacteria, fungi and viruses on the textile surface and in its cross section.
On the inner surface of the textile, dead tissue, sweat, humidity and moisture aids the growth and spread of various pathogens. Also, garments such as jackets and overcoats, which directly don't come in contact with the skin, are also susceptible to infection transfer through contact with the inner garments, which are possibly infected. As such, it is evident that textile contamination by microbiological pathogens is a major cause for concern.
Security and military personnel, stewardesses and other airline personnel are especially prone to disease and skin problems as they may have to wear the same clothing for more than one day. Military personnel may have to wear their apparel for as much as 28 days at a stretch. Not only do these soiled apparel cause health problems to the wearer but are also the breeding grounds for the spread of bacteria, fungi and virus based diseases.
In the context of the hospitals, the presence of microbes is far more threatening. Due to the nature of the environment these textiles are used in, the needs of the textiles are much more specialized. Apart from the regular textiles worn by doctors, nurses, patients and other personnel in hospitals, doctor's clinics and other such locations, textiles used in the form of scrubs, gowns, lab coats, bed sheets and pillow cases carry microbes in various proportions. Patients sleep on sheets and pillow cases that have extremely high risk of contamination due to bacterial and microbial growth resulting from excretions of the body. The mattresses and pillows are also likely to become infected due to the fact that these aren't washed. They, in turn, can transmit infection to the patient. Sheets, pillow covers, gowns, and curtains are subjected to contamination from open wounds and other medical conditions, such as coughing, wheezing, etc. Patients' gowns are contaminated by sweat and/or human excretion such as urine, stool and vomit. This leads to the growth of microorganisms like bacteria, viruses and fungi. Healthcare workers are very often subjected to the contamination either from soiled textiles used by patients or due to excretions of the body. Medical personnel are major causes of transmitting bacterial infection from one patient to another. Current medical textiles offer no barrier protection. Provided herein below are current situations and problems thereof in hospitals:
a. Hospital or Healthcare transmitted diseases to a great extent are textile based transmissions.
b. Doctors and Patients tend to infect each other through textile contact.
c. Current methods of washing lead to damage of the textile.
d. Pillows, mattresses and curtains are rarely washed or disinfected.
e. Post wash bacteria growth is instantaneous.
f. Body residues like sweat and dead skin are breeding grounds for bacteria.
Laundry washing of regular textiles leads to excess consumption of water. Moreover, huge quantities of detergents are used to launder the clothes, and this process is excessively time consuming due to long laundry wash times. There is also a pressing need to address this problem by creating textiles which require lesser amounts of water, time and detergents to clean.
Apart from disinfection, multifunctional capabilities such as anti-staining, moisture management, sweat transportation, abrasion resistance, insect and mosquito repellent, fire retardant, antistatic, anti-pilling, UV protection and soil release are also highly desirable in textiles, as they offer many synergistic benefits to the user. These are easily adapted to the basic function of disinfection without causing any change in functionality.
Microbiologically potable water is a pressing need today. While there is availability of fresh water resources, the water therein is often found contaminated with E. Coli and a wide range of other disease causing microbes. Indeed, many freshwater sources are used by the local population for a variety of activities ranging from bathing, to washing of clothes, to bathing their cattle, etc. As such, the levels of contamination in most of these water resources are considerable. If used for drinking, such contaminated water could lead to outbreaks of diarrhea, cholera and a host of other diseases, as indeed evidenced by studies across the world. While systems do exist which can kill the waterborne microbiology using chemical dosing, the use of such chemicals over extended periods is harmful for the human body. Moreover, yet other systems that can separate or kill bacteria in water use electricity, which is not readily available in a large chunk of underdeveloped regions across the globe.
While many people have indigenously used textiles to sieve water and make it more potable, those textiles cannot kill microbiological pathogens. As such, there is a definite need to address the issue wherein microbiologically safe drinking water can be provided in a simple manner by combining the traditional technique of cloth filtration with a technology that can make the cloth disinfecting and able to kill disease causing microbes.